Rattana is one of these photographers for whom an image can only be conceived based from the thought that is behind it. In Phnom Penh, he was a major contributor to the analytical thinking of the photography practice before he left for Europe. He exhibits the pictures he shot in France over the last two years and thus turns the viewpoint around. He is neither a tourist nor really an analyst, just out to discover and raise questions about spaces, about his subjects that he very often see from the standpoint of their isolation or loneliness. He drifts into variations on color when something colorful catches his eye in the subway or when he encounters it in subtle variations of the same tone . His little Europe Theater is also an opportunity. We have long only seen Southeast Asia viewed through the lenses of Westerners and now we are getting a vision of Europe through the eyes of a seasoned Cambodian photographer.
Born in Cambodia in 1980, Vandy Rattana photographs his native country with great passion, in order to document its hidden realities. He is one of the founding members of the artists’collective “Stieve Selepak,” (the Art Rebels) and, in 2009, with this same group, opened the first gallery managed by artists. He has exhibited his work in Singapore (2012, 2011), in Germany (2012), in New Zealand (2012), in Canada (2012), in the United Kingdom (2011), in the United States (2012, 2010), at the Hessel Museum of Art (2010), in Australia (2012, 2009), in Hong Kong (2009), in Bangladesh (2009), in Korea and China (2008) and in Cambodia. He lives and works in Taiwan.
Photo Phnom Penh festival
From December 8 – 13, 2012
Phnom Penh
Cambodia
